"Congress Creating Atmosphere Of Tension": BJP Complaints To Election Body

The BJP on Thursday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against the Congress, alleging it is trying to create an "atmosphere of tension" in the society and spreading lies that the Constitution will be changed.

The opposition parties have been alleging that the BJP is seeking more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha elections as it wants to change the Constitution and end quotas for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi and party leader Om Pathak approached the commission with the complaint in which the BJP also accused the opposition INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress, of uploading and sharing deepfake videos.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been attacking members of the INDIA bloc over a doctored video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's speech going viral on social media.

The Delhi Police had on Sunday registered an FIR after the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which is under the home ministry, filed a complaint in the doctored video case. It has, since then, summoned 22 people, including Congress leader and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur.

"The Congress and other opposition parties are continuously spreading lies about individuals, policies and the constitutional system. Efforts are being made to create an atmosphere of tension in the society. We brought to the notice of the Election Commission (EC) more than 15 such instances," Trivedi told reporters after meeting the officials of the poll panel here.

In a bid to create hurdles in the conduct of a free and fair elections, this is being done by the Congress and its allies in an "organised manner", he alleged.

"The Congress is making such statements and its allies repeat them. And then their social media (units) spread the same lies, confusions and deepfake (videos) in an unlawful manner among the people," Trivedi said.

He said the poll panel gave a patient hearing to the BJP delegation and assured it of taking appropriate action.

Talking to reporters, Mr Chandrasekhar said, "In the last two phases of the elections, the Congress has consistently depended on a series of political lies that has emerged from as high as Rahul Gandhi to many of its leaders." The Congress is pursuing a political strategy based on lies and distortion of facts. It is misleading the people by making them believe in its lies such as the BJP will change the Constitution if it wins the elections, he said.

"The BJP delegation met the Election Commission and alerted it to the challenge that this will pose to free and fair conduct of polls," Mr Chandrasekhar said.

The EC should look into these issues at the earliest to ensure that elections are conducted freely and fairly and that people are not mislead by the Congress' "politics of lies", he said.

In its memorandum to the Election Commission, the ruling BJP referred to the speeches of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and the leaders of the other opposition parties when they claimed that the saffron party will change the Constitution and scrap reservation if voted to power.

It urged the poll panel to take a comprehensive view of the "design and pattern" of the Congress' misleading campaigns and propaganda and take an "effective action" against it to ensure a "fair play" in the election.

"Direct Rahul Gandhi to tender an unconditional public apology to the nation and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making false allegations...Direct registration of an FIR against Rahul Gandhi under stringent provisions of law," the BJP demanded.

An "unending tirade" against the BJP is going on unchecked "despite many earlier representations to the Election Commission in this regard", the party added. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)